Three Banded Plover and Pale Chanting Goshawk

The Three-banded Plover

This pretty little Plover - quickly identified by our Rogge Cloof follower, Leonie - is a common resident of the Karoo, that doesn’t migrate, although they do undergo large-scale localized movements in response to water.  Hence why we’re finding a lot of these little beauties hanging out around the now active homesteads where there is a lot of water in the dams and irrigated fields.

They mostly eat insects that are around the water's edge, so they are really good for the homesteads defense against fly and mosquito larvae!  (Yeah!!) I love to watch them scurrying at the edge of the water, avoiding the larger more aggressive birds. Keep it up little guys!

The Pale Chanting Goshawk

Hmmmmm....no-one identified this beautiful bird.  Was it too difficult?  Or maybe the summer holidays are too distracting! Nevertheless.....

This awesome bird is very common in the rocky hills and ravines around the Sutherland area, and they are absolutely stunning.  They are prone to moving locally in response to food abundance, so seeing so many around Rogge Cloof means that we still have a lot of life at ground level!

They do mostly eat rodents, using those long legs to grasp them even when hiding amongst the tough dry bushes dominating the Roggeveld.  Look on the fence poles for these lovely birds, you might even find yourself its leftovers (Think lucky rabbit's foot!)